The Social Commentary of Ice Cream Ads

In defiance of a ruling by the British Advertising Standards Authoritydoesnt that ring quaintly on the ear: Advertising Standards Authority an ice cream company has announced its intent to plaster the Popes route through London to Westminster Cathedral with images continuing the theme of a poster already banned by the ASA.

The original poster depicted a pregnant nun dipping her spoon into a tub of Antonio Federici ice cream. It was taken down after the ASA ruled that such an image would be likely to be seen as a distortion and a mockery of Roman Catholic beliefs.

Though the new posters have yet to appear, and the ASA has declined to comment on what it hasnt yet seen staring it in the face all over London, the UK-based Antonio Federici has said that it wished to comment on and question, using satire and gentle humour, the relevance and hypocrisy of religion and the attitudes of the church to social issues.

Listen to us! Social commentary brought to you by your ice cream! Apparently Antonio Federici can hold, simultaneously, both this official position and the one in which they claim that the idea of conception represented the development of their ice cream, and that religious imagery merely suggests the companys strong feeling towards its product, and really, anyone who objects to anything about this ought to try thinking metaphorically once in a while and not go getting all knicker-twisted. Its ice cream.

But its not just any ice cream. This ice cream is relevant, yet hypocritical. Plus its all a bit of lighthearted fun. In which, of course, the Pope and his cavalcade must be forced to take part, for the good of society, in a satirical yet gently humourous kind of way.